Court Judgement Of The Week

I have reported before about the war between those who defend the right of men to urinate whilst standing up and those who insist that the act should be carried out sitting down, turning the male into what the Germans call, rather pejoratively, a sitzpinkler. Well, the male’s right to stand up and miss the target has been upheld by Judge Stefan Hank in the Dusseldorf administrative court this week.

A landlord tried to claim €1,900 from a tenant for damage caused to the marble flooring as a result of him being slightly wayward in his aim.

Whilst accepting that urine had a deleterious effect on the marble, the judge held that the tenant’s method of relieving himself was within cultural norms. “Despite the increasing domestication of men in this context”, the judge said, “urinating standing up is still common practice”.